July 4, 2021
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1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… 4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Galatians 5:1; 4-6
Happy Independence Day! Today marks 245 years since our founding fathers signed the declaration of independence starting a new nation, and choosing to no longer be under the rule of another. The story of our independence which we learn in elementary school, seems pretty heroic and simplistic, and even makes it sound as if from this one document truly all would be considered equal in our new nations. However, we know this is not really the truth. The past of our nation isn’t always pretty, and things have been messy at times, and some could argue that it’s always been messy. Ideals have benefited some, while harming others. Freedom in some aspects has meant subjugation of others. Freedom isn’t always cut and dry.
Paul, long before our nation was founded, long before England was established, even before the formation of the Catholic Church in Rome, wrote about true freedom, and shows us that it isn’t as neat as we would like. In the letter to the Galatians, we hear the words that Christ has set us free, and it is simply for freedom’s sake. As someone who was an expert in the law of God passed down from the time of Moses, Paul, after receiving salvation from Christ, feels as though he better understands how oppressive the law was. When someone is trying to follow a set of regulation and rules rather than understanding the point, they scrutinize too much the daily life, and are slave to trying to do the right thing. Instead, Paul understands and tries to teach the church that we have been justified by Christ. God knows we can’t get it right by focusing on doing right all the time, we have to back up and see the bigger picture. “The only thing that counts is faith working through love.”
By this, Paul is saying that there are going to be moral rules, there are going to be those who decide that people should be, or act, or behave in a particular way to please God, but that isn’t the gospel. The gospel is that freedom from Christ is freedom to be who you are, and what matters is that you are allowing your faith in God to lead you to better love God and the people you encounter in your life (your neighbor). This is the foundation of true freedom, to know that you are loved in order to love, that you are accepted in order to accept, that you are free that you might share your freedom to help others be free.
Grace & Peace,
Sam